Made in Richmond

Mess making.

Lego building.

Coffee drinking.

Responsibility learning.

Pill taking.

Heart breaking.

How about you?

I’ve loved Ron Livingston since Office Space. And then I began to passionately love him when I watched Band of Brothers.

Thanks to the video below, it is now a full-fledged obsession.

Ron Livingston, if I ever meet you, I will kiss you. I WILL KISS YOU ON THE FACE.

I’ve mentioned my love for Regina Spektor before. I don’t know what is about her, but I just find her to be fantastic.

I’ve been listening to her song “On the Radio” a lot lately. And by “a lot” I mean “repeatedly.” There’s this one part that just gets to me in the best possible way, so I thought I’d share it with you.

This is how it works
You’re young until you’re not
You love until you don’t
You try until you can’t
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else’s heart
Pumping someone else’s blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don’t get harmed
But even if it does
You’ll just do it all again

Oh man, it just kills me. Kills me dead.

What’s killing you dead (in a good way) lately?

I know that, for whatever reason, this image is going to be burned into my memory forever. This boy…

Ross and I usually opt for waiting until a show is finished before watching it. That way, once it’s on Netflix, we can plow through it over the course of a few weeks, rather than dealing with season premiers, hiatuses, finales, and all that nonsense.

This leads to us watching A LOT of a particular show at once, which typically leads me to becoming obsessed with that show — partly because I’m spending all of my free time watching and mostly because I have a mild case of the crazies. And then when the show is over, I get very, very…sad. Not just bummed. Like actually sad. I’ll spend way too much time reading about the show on Wikipedia, reading about the actors, fighting the temptation to rewatch the whole thing immediately.

(I also sometimes say to Ross, “What do you think they’re doing now?” I’m kidding when I say it. Mostly. And that comment is usually saved for references to Gilmore Girls.)

My latest source of TV distress is our recent completion of Slings & Arrows — a Canadian dramedy (that word makes me want to vom, but it is what it is) recommended to us by my friend Susan. It’s about a well, Canadian, theater company that focuses on Shakespeare. And it is…FANTASTIC. Plus, the main guy (played by Paul Gross who is apparently The Guy to our friends up north) is absolutely dashing in a “I’m certifiably crazy and somewhat unwashed BUT SO ADORABLE” kind of way.

Here’s a little snippet of the goodness of this show. Watch it. Immediately. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT:

(AUGH. I love it when he gets all director-y.)

Part of my job at church is to put together the bulletin for our weekly service. So by the time Sunday rolls around, the songs that we’ll be singing have already been in my head for three days.

I love most of the songs we sing at church, but when this week’s music leader sent over the list of songs for this Sunday, I started beaming when I saw this one on the list. I just love it — mostly because we actually clap when we sing it. And who doesn’t love a good clapping song?

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Eating my weight in peanut M&Ms.

Taking a walk in the snow with my little guy.

Getting a little flashback of ridiculous adventures of my youth during a Christmas night party with old friends. (It involved catching an owl. Don’t worry, the animal control people told us to.)

Hearing JR say “I wanna do my ornament” each evening as he added to his Advent tree.

(Yes, his Advent tree is black.)

Spending evenings watching movies and not working (even if I had to pay for it last week…and possibly this coming week)

Watching my almost 100-year-old Grandma (her birthday is on Wednesday) have a nice little chat with JR.

Seeing my little boy enjoy his wonderful Christmas gifts.

(It takes everything I am to not pull these trains out for a little therapeutic building time during JR’s naps or after he’s gone to bed.)

Being left speechless.

(That is what you think it is. I don’t think I’ll ever need another gift in my life.)

I hope your holidays were filled with nice little somethings as well. I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

(Next up: JR now sleeps in a bed. The crib is in storage at my in-laws’ house. And I’m still crying in the corner.)

(All of these images were taken with Instagram, my new most favorite thing. If you have an iPhone and you’re not on it, get on it. My user name is ValerieCatrow. Let’s be Instagram friends!)

He takes counting very seriously. Also cheese.

For some reason, I’m especially emotional these days. I’m not sad at all (or at least I’m not most of the time) — I just feel like my emotions are always *right there*.

Having access to the Internet doesn’t help matters, and I keep stumbling across things (on my own or through links posted by others) that get me choked up. So I thought I’d share them all with you! After all, who doesn’t love a good happy cry?

April and Jeremy get married

Sergeant Santa: A tribute (ok, I edited this one, but it gets me every time I read it)

In which my entire concept of God changed when they were born

It makes me so happy to see my friends with their babies. I…I can’t talk about it.

Meeting Elizabeth Edwards

There. Now you can all be complete messes like me.

*UPDATE*
No, I am not pregnant. Just a sap.